Was this the leverage she’d mentioned?
Is that what he’d meant by trusting her? Why would he have done that?
“You expect me to believe you now when every word out of your mouth is a lie? How do I even know that’s my blood and not a fake? Or that it’s not poisoned like before?”
Palladia grinned. “I guess you don’t. But with only a few days left before you croak, do you really have a choice? It’s your only hope now.”
What was she doing? Even if Taiyo took the deal and got his blood back, his healers wouldn’t be able to use it to save him. Only an alchemist would be able to, and even then, with how little there was and how far gone Taiyo was, that was a slim hope at best.
But Callahan’s palm over her mouth kept her from being able to shout to Taiyo not to take it.
“I would rather spend a few hours with my wife than take that blood and spend a lifetime without her. I won’t repeat myself again. Let her go.”
Palladia’s fingers curled around the vial and she sighed. “Such a shame… Well, sort of. I do so love getting my hands dirty.”
In a blur of movement, she tucked the vial back into her pouch and reached into another as Taiyo lifted his hand up and began summoning sunlight.
No matter what, Hellebore couldn’t let her aunt kill her husband. She would not let them take her from him.
Hellebore bit Callahan’s hand right as Palladia threw the pellets, transmuting them into smoke. The last thing Hellebore could see clearly was Taiyo’s horse rearing up and Palladia charging forward, pulling her mask up.
Hellebore started coughing immediately as Callahan held her tighter. “Emerson, now!”
The wagon started rolling, and Hellebore jolted, ripping herself out of his grip. A light ripped through the smoke, and in the near distance she could see Taiyo’s silhouette in the haze.
“Hels, no—come back!”
She felt Callahan scramble to grab hold of her, but she threw herself out the back of the wagon and tumbled to the ground. A jarring pain rattled up her shoulder as she landed on it, but she quickly rolled off it and stumbled to her feet. Her hands were bound behind her and all she had on was a nightgown, no belt or weapons.
She coughed, tucking her head into her shoulder. All she had to do was reach Taiyo. Then they could escape together.
She could hear Callahan and Emerson behind her, so she took off toward the sunlight cutting through the smoke. Her eyes burned and she called out between coughs, “Taiyo!”
A scream ripped through the air, but it was too high-pitched to be Taiyo’s. The smoke was starting to clear and Hellebore could see her aunt holding her right arm in front of her, burned so badly the glove was melted into her skin. If she could see Palladia, Callahan could see her.
Hellebore ran faster as Taiyo fell to his knees, wheezing as he pulled two dissection knives out of his side. Four knives littered the ground where Emerson had missed him. Black blood bubbled up and poured out, staining his clothes and skin as he dropped the knives. Hellebore crashed to her knees beside him, shoving her wrists into his face. “Quick, get this off, I’m of no use to you without my hands!”
Taiyo fumbled with the rope for a moment, still wheezing until he grabbed one of the knives and cut through the cord. Excellent.
The second her hands were free, she grabbed the rope and the knives, pulling them together in front of her. The ground,however, wasn’t soft enough for her to legibly write in. There was too much grass.
Her aunt ripped the leather glove off with a vicious shriek as Callahan and Emerson reached her. Hellebore didn’t have much time left.
Squeamish alchemists didn’t last long.
Hellebore ignored Taiyo’s pained exclamation as she hurriedly shoved her fingers in his bleeding side. With her other hand she grabbed his metal buttons and ripped them off, throwing them beside the knives. She wrote the formula on the silk nightgown and pushed her power into it. The formula glowed, and the transmutation succeeded. She grabbed her weapon, scooping up the rope and stumbling to her feet in front of Taiyo, spinning it just in time.
Callahan yelped and jumped back right before the spiked ball attached to the end of her rope nearly slammed into his chest.
Hellebore kept spinning it, forcing all three of them to keep their distance or else risk finding out just how much it would hurt to feel it slam into them and rip their skin to shreds as she pulled it back.
She felt Taiyo’s hand curl around her leg and he breathed out, “Hellebore—”
Callahan held his hands up in the air, not getting any closer, but not retreating. “Hels, please, we are trying to save you!”
Palladia took something out of her pouch and threw it to Emerson. With her right arm burned beyond repair, she wouldn’t be able to transmute easily. “Get that into her system and be done with it.”
The sedative.
